If you consider yourself something of a gin lover and you’ve not yet been to Atlas Bar in Manchester city centre, well, prepare yourself for a ruddy great time.
This Deansgate institution has been a fixture on the edge of Castlefield since 1996 and is described by some as a Manchester icon, for good reason.
With a gorgeous outside terrace area overlooking the Manchester skyline, and a warm and inviting atmosphere inside, come rain or shine you’re guaranteed a warm welcome at Atlas Bar.
A longstanding favourite of gin lovers, the team has over 570 bottles of gin on its back bar at its last count – and you can try them all.
There’s a flavour style for everyone – whether you like London dry, a big American wet, a fruity gin, a pink gin, an old Tom or a genever – and the staff are incredibly knowledgeable, should you get overwhelmed by the extensive list.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
A good way to get stuck in is to sample their gin tasting flights, priced at £10 each for a selection of three handpicked gins, perfectly paired with garnishes and tonics selected to highlight the unique botanicals in each bottle.
Highlights on the menu include Spanish gin 5th Gin Fire, a traditional London dry with a soft pink hue and highly aromatised flavour delivered by red berries with a touch of balsamic, and the Four Pillars Rare – a gin that is really close to Atlas owners’ Mark and Elaine’s hearts.
Launching in the UK first, here at Atlas, the owners and distillers of this amazing Australian gin, have become great friends of the team here.
Distilled in the beautiful Yarra Valley, wine region, in a still named Wilma, the Four Pillars Rare gin is made with some wonderful local botanicals including Tasmanian Pepper berry and Lemon Myrtle.
Other gin must-tries include Guernsey based gin Unit 6, small batch gin Solway, premium small batch gin Kuro and Divine Raspbery, the latter distilled by Ray Woolhead in nearby Holmfirth.
Of course, it’s not all about the gin here as Atlas also stocks a vast range of draught and bottled beers, ciders, spirits, Champagnes and wines, as well as serving up a solid all day menu of breakfast dishes and tasty bar snacks.
You can also order unusual bottles of gin to collect at the bar or for delivery from Atlas, as well as some fabulous home gin experiences.
For gin lovers looking for something new in the city, there’s really nowhere better.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Eats
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Georgina Pellant -
30th June 2023 
